Flashpacking Guide to London

We’ve been in London for almost a week – our first ever visit here. Below is our take on visiting this iconic capital city. This is the first stop on a mid-50s adventure in which we’ve quit our jobs and plan to spend the next seven months travelling as affordably and comfortably as possible. We travel with backpacks instead of suitcases and stay in hotels or apartments – not hostels or tents!

Why have we never been to London or England before?

That’s a good place to start. England is where many things in our home country of New Zealand originated, including some of our early ancestors. While we’ve visited France multiple times, as well as Germany, Italy, and Switzerland, we’ve avoided this island. Why?

1. It’s expensive! Isn’t it?

2. It rains a lot! Doesn’t it?

3. It’s an island – not easily accessible from mainland Europe.

These were all good excuses – until now.

This time, we found surprisingly affordable and relatively quick flights from Nelson, New Zealand, to London. Leaving home at 11 a.m. on a Tuesday and arriving in London at 11 a.m. on Wednesday (having only lost 12 hours to the time zone and a two-hour engine delay in San Francisco) was a great flight option. That said, we arrived tired and shattered. Long-haul, straight-through flights in your 50s are not like doing them in your 20s!

London as a Gateway to Europe

When booking our flights to London, the main attraction was using it as a jumping-off point to access the rest of Europe cheaply – a direct flight into London followed by a low-cost puddle-jump flight to Eastern Europe. We’ll see how that puddle jump goes later today. Fingers crossed!

We settled on 5 days and 6 nights in London, after considering 2 weeks and a side trip to Oxford. But that seemed like an expensive way to start our flashpacking, post-employment adventure, so we opted for a shorter stay. It turned out to be the perfect amount of time to recover from the flight and see the main sights.

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Accommodation

With flights sorted, our next priority was affordable accommodation – something that wouldn’t blow the budget, ideally with self-catering facilities, and in a good location.

After sifting through countless options (most starting at NZD $200+ per night), we found our Pitshanger Pad.

Located in Ealing, within a 20-minute walk of the Ealing Broadway tube station, it turned out to be an ideal base. We had access to nearly the entire flat spread across three levels – including a kitchen/dining area, a lounge with chairs and a sofa, a bathroom, and a bedroom. Two rooms were locked off for the owner’s use (though they were never present during our stay).

A 5-minute walk away is Pitshanger Lane, home to a nice pub, a few restaurants and takeaways, and various shops. We visited the pub for a pre-dinner pint a few nights and made use of the local Co-op supermarket and Turkish takeaway.

The Pitshanger accommodation was a bargain at $135 NZD per night – and even more so considering we could cook meals and save further.

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Underground (“The Tube”)

Staying outside the city centre meant we relied heavily on the Underground. London’s Tube system is impressively efficient and one of the largest in the world.

Being just 1.5 km from Ealing Broadway station, we had access to three lines: the Elizabeth, District, and Central. The Elizabeth Line also brought us straight from Heathrow upon arrival. We used whichever line suited our plans for the day.

Typical return fare into the city was £6.90 (about $15.50 NZD). Not super cheap, but reasonable.

Using the Tube is incredibly easy – it’s completely cashless. No tickets required. Just tap in and out with your credit or debit card. Charges appear on your card the next day, and there’s a daily and weekly cap on fares.

We typically made just one round trip per day.

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Weather

We visited London in the first week of June, officially the start of summer. The weather was changeable, with mild temperatures. Definitely bring a coat if rain is in the forecast – we needed ours for the first two days but never got totally drenched.

Many days were a mix of sun and overcast skies – very pleasant for long walks. To be fair, we would’ve been disappointed to visit England and not see some rain!

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Cheap and Free Things to Do – Bring Your Walking Shoes!

As flashpackers, our goal is to experience a place without spending a fortune. We aren’t drawn to touristy side-shows or expensive attractions. London has plenty of them, but we opted for self-guided walking tours instead.

Each day, we walked around 10 km, ticking off the major sights:

• Harrods Department Store
• Natural History Museum (free entry)
• Big Ben & the Houses of Parliament
• Queen’s Walk
• Waterloo Bridge
• Covent Garden (spoiler: not a garden!)
• Trafalgar Square
• The National Gallery (free entry)
• St Paul’s Cathedral
• Millennium Pedestrian Bridge
• Tate Modern Gallery (free entry)
• Tower Bridge
• Tower of London
• Westminster Abbey
• Piccadilly Circus
• Leicester Square
• Monopoly Board spotting – Mayfair, Park Lane, Fleet Street
• Hyde Park

We covered all the above over four days. If you want to go inside paid attractions, you’ll need more time (and budget). We also had one “rest day” where we stayed local – exploring the Pitshanger area, visiting the park, and catching up on chores like laundry.

For more detailed information about the walks we did and the places we visited, check out our day-by-day coverage under the "London" blog label. Here is a link we have created to that Label for you. https://wandermoreworkless.blogspot.com/search/label/London

If you have questions about any of our experiences in London please reach out and ask us using the Contact Form at the bottom of the Blog. Thanks, Aaron & Sarah.